Santa Cruz man designs, builds prosthetic hand for Haitian orphan

SANTA CRUZ &GT;&GT; Through a sense of humanity and a serendipitous opportunity, a Santa Cruz man designed and built a prosthetic hand for a 12-year-old boy in Haiti.

John Marshall, 47, met Stevenson Joseph during a relief trip to the country in 2013.

The boy was born with two fingers on his right hand and no fingers on his left hand. The 12 year old was abandoned by his mother at a home for disabled children when he was 3.

Marshall and his wife, Lisa Deverse, were convinced to go on a relief trip to Haiti arranged by the Rev. Bob Murrin, pastor of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Boulder Creek. Murrin traveled to Haiti before for Food for the Poor, a Florida-based nonprofit that feeds impoverished on an international level.

The poverty in Haiti is something beyond what he imagined, Murrin said.

"There's a word I use to describe what I see in Haiti and that is 'primitive,'" Murrin said.

So he regularly spreads word about the nonprofit. While the couple and Murrin knew each other, they made a stronger connection in 2012 and the pastor convinced the couple to accompany him on a trip to Haiti.

"I believed strongly it would have a powerful impact on them because they both have such good hearts," he said.

And he was right. Once the couple toured parts of the country, which is still recovering from the 2010 earthquake that devastated the nation, they decided to help by raising money to build a school there.

"The village that we chose (to help) is the poorest that we saw. There's just so much need. That's why we made it the focus of our project," Marshall said.

But after Marshall met Stevenson, he couldn't help but think about how to help the child. When Marshall returned to Santa Cruz, he read an article about a man in South Africa, Richard Van As, who designed a low-cost, custom-fit prosthetic arm for children with Stevenson's condition. The arm could be made through the use of a 3-D printer, a method where a special printer uses cartridges filled with liquid plastic to print three-dimensional designs. Because Van As' design was an open source, meaning there was no copyright on it, Marshall was able to tweak it to match Stevenson's needs.

Marshall, a software engineer, summarized his motivation for helping the boy in two word: an obligation.

"I have everything I need placed right in front of me to be able to do this to help this individual," Marshall said. He listed the array of serendipitous facts: Meeting Stevenson on the trip, learning about a local prosthetics lab on the island, reading an article about a prosthetic design for people like Stevenson, his engineering background and his understanding of 3-D printing.

"All this takes from me is time and a little bit of money," he said. "How could you not do that? You just absolutely have to follow through on that."

After nine months and several prototypes, the design was completed and a prosthetic arm printed.

In April, Marshall flew to Haiti and met with Stevenson to attach the arm. The prosthetic is somewhat large, encapsulating the 12-year-old boy's left forearm. In a video posted on Food for the Poor's YouTube channel, Stevenson eagerly watches as Marshall shows him the prosthetic arm, complete with four fingers and a thumb. By bending his wrist, Stevenson is able to flex the fingers of the arm.

What: Fundraising event to build a school in Haiti organized by John Marshall and his wife Lisa Deverse

Where: Silver Creek Valley Country Club, 5460 Country Club Parkway in San Jose